Housekeeping Tip #2 from Jen

Don't leave a hot iron on your couch. It will leave a horrible burn mark.

Backstory: This summer when I was directing a summer scholastic program, I ended up doing a lot of the building maintenance myself to keep good relations with our Catholic school landlords. I found a genius way to get rid of carpet stains after one of the kids spilled their red gatorade all over the off-white carpeting. Last week I decided to "steam clean" my own couch using the same method to give it another year of life.

So this week we are couch shopping.

DC Autism Walk

We had a really great morning at the Autism Walk! We were supposed to walk with one of Noe's ABA therapists and her fiance, but she had a last-minute emergency, so Team Noe was the Guzman Four.

The weather was gorgeous....even warm. There was a large, enthusiastic crowd, great speakers, food, music and a resource fair. We forgot our camera, of course, but we took a few pics on the cell phone.

An interesting note from one of the speakers: There is a rumor circulating that Prez Elect Obama is planning to appoint an Autism Czar.



We walked from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial and back. When we got to the Lincoln Memorial, Asher asked, "Is that Obama's house?" And then he answered his own question as we got closer and Asher saw the statue of Abraham Lincoln. "No. Jesus lives here."

Thanks again to all of our friends and family that donated to Team Noe! We were dangerously close to reaching our $1000 goal, which seemed an impossible task just a week earlier.

Post Election Notes

*There is such a great feeling in the air since the election on Tuesday. I know that the initial euphoria will end, but it's hard to not love being an American right now and it's hard not to be optimistic that a better future is ahead of us. I can't even imagine what this election means to African Americans. Listening to interviews with former civil right leaders have been among my favorite part of this election aftermath.

*Guess who shed the most tears during Obama's acceptance speech? Well, it wasn't the "hormonal woman" and the boys were asleep if that gives you a clue.

*Speaking of Ed, I think he is determined to make me sick of our president-elect before inaguration by playing clips of his old speeches and interviews non-stop in our house.

*After Obama's acceptance speech, news commentators kept referring to the rush of people who would be headed to Washington. They predicted a lot of talented people who were currently in the private sector, would seek out Washington to lend their hand to the "movement." Something along these same lines occurred during the Kennedy administration. My first thoughts were along the lines of ..... maybe housing prices will finally start to recover for us with all of these people coming! Perhaps I haven't quite caught the vision of the movement yet.

*The only downside to this election for us was the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Rather than write an entire rant, I will just say that we were saddened by this outcome.

Team Noe - Reminder

Thanks to all of our friends and family who have already donated to Team Noe. We are really excited to participate in the Walk around the National Mall this Saturday morning!

We are still working to reach our team goal of $1000, so if you would like to still donate, please do so here.

Just in from East LA....

According to an unofficial exit poll conducted by Ed's Tia Esperanza (she asked everyone in line who they were voting for), East Los Angeles should go solidly blue.

I Voted in My Pajamas

I had a crazy busy day planned today so I got up at 5:45am, pulled on my Nikes and a sweatshirt, and ran over to our polling place to beat the early morning crowd. I thought Ed was a fool for voting early and dealing with those crowds, until I saw the line in front of our polling place. It was dark and cold and I tried very hard to have all of those "proud American voter" feelings one is supposed to experience, but I was grumpy. Especially because everyone around me was holding their free Starbucks coffee and couldn't be happier about spending the first hour and half of their day in line.

Oh blessed mail ballot voting. I was tempted to run back to our house and pull out my senior honors thesis on Oregon's Mail Ballot Voting system and a megaphone and orate to the crowd about its benefits. I am all for democracy-in-action but there is a better way to do this folks!

Now....it's just a matter of waiting for the results. Fingers crossed!!!

Tuesday Travels: The National Building Museum

Last Tuesday, Asher and I spent our day in the District at the National Building Museum, which is tucked between Chinatown and the Capitol.

It would be a lie to say I take Asher into the District on Tuesdays for his own enrichment. The truth is that I still get major boughts of homesickness for Portland. I still feel like I was meant to live my life in Portland....yet I'm here....and it's not a bad place to be at all. Getting into the District once a week is a good reminder for me that I'm really living a charmed life....even if it's not in Portland.

So we get to the Building Museum and I tell Asher we are going to look at the exhibits before heading to the Kid Zone, a huge construction room for the preschool set. We head to an exhibit entitled "Green Communities" featuring....the City of Portland, of course. It highlighted their transportation infrastructure that really should be the envy of every city in America.

So much for my homesickness cure.